A convicted killer who was released from prison to fight for Russia’s Wagner group is the second mercenary to be bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer after being accused of defecting to Ukraine.
Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, had his head taped to a pile of bricks with cling film before being beaten to death with a sledgehammer in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and published on messaging app Telegram.
Yakushchenko was accused of treason for deserting after arriving at the front. He was later recaptured by his former Wagner colleagues, who executed him.
The 44-year-old is now the second Wagner fighter to be executed with a sledgehammer after convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, was killed by his compatriots in November last year.
The harrowing video shows Yakushchenko confessing to surrendering to Ukraine with his head strapped tightly to a brick block with cling film, while a man stands behind him with a sledgehammer.
The head of Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, was taped to bricks with cling film before being bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and posted online
Yakushchenko (pictured) was accused of treason for defecting to Ukraine after arriving on the front line
Yakushchenko, who wears a military uniform, said he “realized this wasn’t my war” after being sent to fight for Putin, saying he was hit in the head on the streets of Dnipro in central Ukraine and in the buckled room woke up a stone.
Yakushchenko added that he had been told he would be charged with desertion.
At that moment, the man standing behind him raised the sledgehammer and hit Yakushchenko on the head, the sound of his skull crashing against the rock echoing through the darkened room.
Yakushchenko was hit twice more – his body sagged on the ground after the sickening beating.
Reports in Russia say Yakushchenko was a convicted murderer and robber who had been released from a 19-year sentence to fight in Putin’s war.
Reaching the front with Wagner mercenaries, he surrendered to Ukraine.
But he had apparently been returned to the notoriously brutal Wagner group in a prisoner exchange when he was brutally executed.
Before his execution, he said to the camera: “I am Dmitry Yakushchenko, born in Crimea in 1978.
“I went to the front in the ranks of the Wagner PMC [private military company].
“At the front, I realized this wasn’t my war…
“Today I was in the streets of Dnipro where I got hit on the head and lost consciousness.
“I woke up in this room, being told I was going to be put on trial [for desertion]’ Yakushchenko said just seconds before he was brutally executed.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Putin aide, has previously threatened to kill “traitors” who leave the front lines and has defended the assassination of Nushin, as have Putin’s propagandists
His murder commemorates the execution of convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, who was also bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer (pictured shortly before his death).
His murder commemorates the execution of convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, who was also beaten to death with a sledgehammer.
He, too, had been returned by the Ukrainians in an official POW swap, only to be returned to Wagner, who then took the law into their own hands.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Putin aide, has previously threatened to kill “traitors” who leave the front lines and has defended the assassination of Nushin, as have Putin’s propagandists.
Yakushchenko, from Crimea, was originally recorded by the Ukrainians explaining how he escaped after being taken to the front.
“I intended to find an escape route,” he said. “My fourth day began, I took my machine gun, some magazines, [and] a few grenades…
“I crawled somewhere and lay down until the gunfire stopped and drones flew.”
“I kept moving, and it turned out that my position was on the Ukrainian side. If Russians have a chance to leave, they had better do it.’
Yakushchenko, from Crimea, was originally recorded by the Ukrainians explaining how he escaped after being taken to the front
Yakushchenko said he hopes Crimea will return to Ukraine, he told his interrogators.
The Ukrainians included Yakushchenko in a major PoW swap earlier this month, in which Russia also returned the bodies of British auxiliaries Chris Parry, 28, and his colleague Andrew Bagshaw, 47, according to Cheka-OGPU’s Telegram channel.
Video of Yakushchenko’s execution was shared by the Gray Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to Wagner.
Yakushchenko appears to have been convicted of murder in Crimea when it was still under Ukrainian control before being annexed by Putin in 2014.
He was then transferred to a prison in Engels, Russia.
It was from here that he was recruited as part of the Russian plan to free murderers, rapists and other criminals to fight against Ukraine and offer them a pardon if they survive six months.